Until 1,000 newly planted trees have grown in Norway, you won't
get to read the newest book from David Mitchell, the author of
Cloud Atlas. Same goes for Margaret Atwood's recent
manuscript Scribbler Moon.

Both authors were commissioned to write works for Future Library, a 100-year-long
art project created by Scottish artist Katie Paterson.
Paterson plans to add one new manuscript to the
collection from a different author every year until 2114, at
which point all 100 texts will be published at the same time.

As part of the project, she planted 1,000 trees in the
Nordmarka forest, located outside of Oslo. In 2114,
once the trees are big enough to cut down, the
wood will be used to make the paper on which
the manuscripts will be printed.

Courtesy Future Library

The purpose of the project is part optimistic,
part technophobic: Paterson wants to show that, though
media and publishing are increasingly digital, readers in 2114
will still want to read physical books. She'll
build her case by compiling manuscripts to over the
next 98 years.

The increasing popularity of ebooks suggests Paterson's
concerns are well-founded. According to
a Pew Research Center report, the percentage of 18 to
29-year-olds who have read at least one e-book in the
previous year rose from 25% in 2011 to 47% in 2014. And that
trend is not limited to millennials — ebook
retailer Kobo reported in April that 75% of
its most active readers are
female and over 45. But the same Pew study also
indicated that 69% of people have read at least one physical
book in the last year.

Paterson's project will ensure that at least 100 texts
will be printed on paper a century from now. Atwood's
book, Scribbler Moon was submitted last year
as the initiative's first manuscript. David
Mitchell's, which was added to the collection on May 28, is the
second. Other participating authors have not yet been
announced.

"At first I thought, 'That's mad, you write something and no one
gets to read it,'" Mitchell says in a video interview published
on Future Library's website. "Then some weeks went by and I
started to think about it more. I thought, 'Yes it is kind mad,
there's good bad and bad mad, and I think this was good
mad.'"

The manuscripts will be held in a specially designed room in
Oslo's New Deichmanske Public Library, which is slated
to open in 2019. The space will be lined with wood from the
forest where the 1,000 trees were planted.

"The project is a vote of confidence that, despite the
catastrophist shadows under which we live, the future will still
be a brightish place willing and able to complete an artistic
endeavour begun by long-dead people a century ago," Mitchell says
in the video.

After all, digital technology can't replace the satisfying
feeling of turning a page — at least not yet.